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This post nearly did not make it to this page. The reason? I’m back to the digital dark ages again. And that takes some getting used to, in 2012 A.D. It all started with a simple text message. “Total amount foreign transer: 12,000 Euro.” Sent by my bank. I had not transferred 12,000 Euro, let alone to a foreign bank account. So what does one do? Call the bank. The helpdesk lady said this was the work of hackers, who had made their way into my computer on a Trojan Horse. Nothing they could do about it, she said, since virus protection was my own reponsability. But what about that expensive anti-virus software I’d been buying for years? Alas. That Trojan Horse galloped right through it. So I blocked my account, applied for new codes and took my poor baby to the ER. “That doesn’t look good” was the first diagnosis. According to the computer doc, my hard drive was beyond repair.
Thank goodness I had a smart phone, so I could still call, mail, ping and chat and was not completely disconnected from the world. But whether it was indeed a smart thing to trust my life to that little piece of technology, I am beginning to wonder. What happened? Yesterday night, my Galaxy decided to depart this world. There I was, staring at yet another black screen. No computer, no phone. No numbers even, cause they were all in my phone memory. The back-up? On my hard drive. My calendar? In my phone. Birthdays, adresses, pictures, column ideas, even that message from that cute guy. ALL GONE. Panic! I used my land line, the only means of communication still at my service, to call my mom. Her number is the only one I know by heart. “So sorry honey”, she said. “Maybe it’s time for a good old little black book?”